Tag Archive for: culture

ROOKE: Country Mostly Made Of Catholics Shows Rest Of World How It’s Done

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Poland, a nation where Catholicism remains the dominant faith and ethnic homogeneity is among the highest in Europe, stands out as a model of stability, prosperity, and social cohesion in an increasingly fragmented world.

Poland consistently ranks among Europe’s safest countries, with a Crime Index of around 29 on Numbeo in 2025. This is far below levels in France (55.4), the United Kingdom (48.3), or Sweden (48). This safety largely stems from Poland’s homogeneity. Over 97 percent of Poles were born in Poland, while just 2.6 percent were foreign-born residents as of 2024.

Studies on social capital show that ethnic and cultural uniformity fosters higher interpersonal trust, stronger community ties, and lower crime rates. If close-knit communities can act as powerful buffers against crime, the same is true for an entire country with deep ties. The citizens build trust, support, and shared expectations that discourage bad behavior. These social bonds have long-lasting, positive effects that are passed down over generations.

Visitors and residents alike note clean, orderly streets and low fear of crime, a stark contrast to many Western European countries plagued by rising violence and disorder. Poland’s shared Catholic heritage serves as a common moral framework that promotes personal responsibility and neighborly solidarity, minimizing the social frictions that fuel criminality elsewhere. And while self-identified Catholics have declined to around 71 percent of the population in recent censuses, the country’s cultural fabric is still deeply woven with Catholic traditions that emphasize family, community, and moral order.

Economically, Poland is Europe’s standout performer. Its GDP growth is projected at 3.5 percent for 2026, outpacing the European Union (EU) average of around 1.4 percent.

Poland’s social policies remain proudly conservative, prioritizing family, tradition, and national sovereignty. Generous child benefits support high birth rates relative to European peers, while restrictive abortion laws and slower adoption of progressive reforms reflect enduring Catholic influence. This stands in contrast to Western Europe’s rapid secularization and social liberalization. A unified culture makes these policies sustainable. High-trust societies can maintain traditional norms without fear of cultural erosion, fostering the social cohesion needed for family-oriented programs.

Strict immigration controls, like welcoming contributors who are culturally similar while rejecting mandatory EU quotas, preserve their unity. In an era when many nations grapple with division, declining trust, and stagnation, Poland shows that preserving cultural and ethnic connectedness, anchored in a Catholic moral tradition, delivers tangible benefits. Poles enjoy safer streets, thriving economies, and resilient families.

WATCH: A Midday Walk in Warsaw, Poland

The most incredible thing about their country is that they haven’t once apologized for their homogeneity. Their embrace of continued cultural traditions is an example for the rest of the world to follow. It’s not only okay for countries to protect their cultural identity, but an absolute must if they want to survive.

AUTHOR

Mary Rooke

Commentary and Analysis Writer. Follow Mary Rooke on X: @MaryRooke.

RELATED ARTICLE: ROOKE: Governments In Europe Fighting Over Who Has To Take In More Immigrants

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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Americans Fear Surging Political Violence Will Lead to Assassination

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Political violence has been on the rise in recent months, and most Americans expect the fatal trend to continue, according to a new survey. Politico and Public First released a poll Monday which found that a majority of Americans anticipate political violence in the U.S. to worsen in the coming years.

In total, 55% of respondents said that they expect political violence to increase, while only 29% said that they expect political violence to decrease. Additionally, 50% of respondents said that they believe it is either somewhat likely (31%) or very likely (19%) that a political candidate will be assassinated within the next five years. Only 18% said that such an occurrence was somewhat unlikely (9%) or very unlikely (9%).

While a total of 24% of Americans polled replied that political violence can sometimes be justified, that share was even higher among young voters. Over a third of voters aged 18 to 24 (36%), 25 to 34 (35%), and 35 to 44 (34%) agreed that some circumstances justify political violence. In comments to The Washington Stand, Family Research Council Senior Fellow for Biblical Worldview Joseph Backholm said, “The expectation of more political violence and the rising belief that it can be justified are largely connected. Unfortunately, growing secularism in the West has turned government into our God. Somehow, we see government as both the cause and the solution to all our problems.”

He explained, “Since the people are the government, we see those who enable government we dislike not as neighbors we disagree with but as the source of all our problems. Secularism provides both unreasonable expectations for the present and no reason for hope when our expectations are not met. When we believe certain individuals are the source of all the world’s problems, we can see why some people would come to believe a little violence is justified to bring about utopia.”

“People across the political spectrum all recognize the world is broken, but misunderstanding the source of the problem leads to solutions that actually make the problem worse,” Backholm continued. “The solution to all of it is understanding that God is God, not government. If we do that, we are much less likely to despair when government fails to solve all our problems.”

Although Politico noted that its survey found “little partisan divide in that belief,” much of the political violence seen in recent months has been perpetrated by left-wing actors. Last year, President Donald Trump survived two assassination attempts, and this year has seen violence and rioting targeting federal immigration authorities, the murder of Turning Point USA founder and Trump administration ally Charlie Kirk, and Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Virginia Jay Jones admitting to sharing text messages discussing killing a Republican opponent and his children. Trump administration officials have also been forced to live on military bases as progressive activists target them for harassment and death threats.

Shortly after Kirk’s murder in September, an Economist/YouGov survey found that one-third (33%) of Americans faulted the Left for the rise in political violence, while 29% said that the right-wing is responsible, and 24% blamed both Left and Right. Overall, 67% of respondents agreed that the country has become more politically divided over the last five years. Immediately following the first assassination attempt against Trump last year, an Unheard poll discovered that “one-third of Democrat respondents agreed with the statement, ‘I wish Trump’s assassin hadn’t missed.’” Likewise, a Napolitan News Service survey following the second assassination attempt against Trump found that over a quarter of Democrats said that the U.S. would be “better off” if Trump had been assassinated.

Backholm explained, “Political violence is more of a problem on the Left because leftism is inherently secular and therefore offers no hope when life isn’t going the way you prefer. Their worldview tells them sin isn’t a problem, everything bad is caused by systemic injustice, and government should be able to solve that problem if only the right people are in charge.” He continued, “When the plan doesn’t work, and things are going badly, they have no reason for hope. So when you despair, it’s normal to lash out violently against the people you blame for your problems unless you have a reason not to.”

“Faith in God, and the gospel specifically, gives people a reason to have hope despite bad circumstances,” Backholm emphasized. “It gives us a reason to forgive those who have wronged us and even work for their good. The gospel is inherently hopeful, but secularism is inherently despairing, which is why despair is more common on the Left. A world without God is very sad.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Navigating a Hostile World: 5 Ways Christians Can Stand Firm with Grace and Truth

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How should Christians respond to a world increasingly hostile toward Christians and the values they proclaim?

This pressing question was explored during a panel discussion at Family Research Council’s 2025 Pray Vote Stand Summit over the weekend, where thousands of believers gathered for two days of worship, learning, and equipping to stand resolute in their faith. The panelists offered a multifaceted approach to engaging a hostile culture with compassion, conviction, and biblical grounding. Here are five key insights from their discussion.

1. Winning Hearts or Winning Debates?

Engaging a hostile world begins with rejecting its combative tone. “[W]e’re to speak the truth in love,” said FRC President Tony Perkins. And yet, “oftentimes when we get into these discussions, we want to win a debate as opposed to winning a heart” — a perspective that usually only deepens the divide. That’s when Mike Winger, founder of BibleThinker, chimed in, stating that “biblically speaking, you actually care about the other person.”

Speaking with someone we’re at odds with can be challenging, but as Winger further explained, “[W]e can be passionate … about where the country is or where our churches are at. But am I passionate about that individual and them changing their mind or getting at least a seed planted?” Anyone can change their mind later “down the road,” but “the agenda is transformation on the other side, not just a victory.”

How do you view the person you’re talking to? This, as Perkins noted, is a fundamental question to ask yourself when navigating these kinds of conversations. If you see them as a sinner in need of saving and blinded by darkness, chances are, you may find yourself far more compassionate and loving toward them than you thought possible.

2. The “Theology of Losing Friends”

Founder and President of Them Before Us Katy Faust put it bluntly. If Christians are to share truth in an age that cancels truth tellers, then we must “develop a theology of losing friends.” She encouraged believers to prioritize relationships and initiate connections with those who disagree, but to set biblical boundaries. “[Y]ou need to think ahead of time,” she said, “and you need to think biblically.” What are you not willing to do simply to keep the relationship? Are you willing to lose a friend if it means not compromising?

Scripture is clear that the world will hate Christians because it first hates and rejects Christ (John 15:18). As such, for believers willing to stand firm, losing friendships is an inevitable reality. But as Faust emphasized, when you lose that friendship, you should be able to say, “[I’ve] lost the relationship. Not because I was a jerk … unprepared … uninformed, or I was doing too much truth telling and not enough grace giving. [I] lost the relationship because the only way for me to keep it was to compromise on what I believe.” This, Faust urged, is not only “an acceptable reason to lose a friend,” but it’s also “what honoring your Lord looks like in … a hostile culture.”

3. Care about What the Bible Cares about

Christians must engage with all issues the Bible addresses, even those deemed “secondary.” Winger explained how Jesus Himself spoke on taxes and divorce, even if what He said was not accepted. Of course, sharing the gospel is crucial for Christians, but it’s a “narrow view of the gospel” to think that Christians can not or should not address other conversations within culture.

Winger went further: “[W]e’ve underestimated how much these secondary issues are actually our neighbor’s primary issues.” For many, issues concerning life, gender, identity, and more sit at the “center of their worldview. … And when you leave that alone, you’re leaving the stronghold center of their worldview alone” — the very aspect “that’s making them resistant to the gospel of Christ.” There are plenty of people who struggle with homosexuality, unchallenged by the truth of Scripture, who may agree to go to church. Yet, Winger noted, “when [their sin] finally gets confronted, they just bail.”

Christians can’t “abandon central issues our people are dealing with,” Winger stressed, because then “we leave them alone without any guidance from the light of the world on these issues that are destroying their souls.”

4. Be Engaged by Finding Your Identity in Christ, Not in Politics

Political engagement can spark spiritual revival, as Faust observed: “[P]olitical conservatism has led to a spiritual revival” when Christians speak with “sanity and evidence.” Natasha Crain, author of “When Culture Hates You,” chimed in, remarking, “There’s always the risk that we can conflate our identity. … We need to identify the risks” to avoid “conflating our Christian identity with any kind of political identity.”

However, Crain argued, “My concern is sometimes, when we’re talking about those risks, we never get past the risk.” Christians often spend a lot of time warning other Christians of the negative consequences of getting wrapped up in politics that they forget to address what it should look like — how Christians can faithfully engage in a way that sparks positive change. From Crain’s observation, “A lot of that pressure [Christian’s face] to hide because of … hostility comes from within the church.”

There are many “leaders within the church,” she emphasized, “a lot of pastors who are doing so much of the warning … that it makes us shrink back and go, ‘Oh, I guess I shouldn’t want to impose my values on others,’ or, ‘I guess I shouldn’t be seeking the power to do things right.’ We hear all of these kind of mantras in the church.” Yet, “When you pull them back, you realize that they’re really not logically consistent. They’re not biblically consistent. We are called to be salt and light” and “follow Jesus’s commands … to love God [and] others. … [P]art of loving others … is caring about their lives in the context of the societies in which they live.”

Ultimately, it’s an identity found in Christ alone that allows Christians to engage in politics without making an identity out of it. And when you are criticized for voicing God’s truth, Winger encouraged believers to “ignore them and keep moving forward.” And if you’re scared to speak up at all and are concerned you aren’t equipped, Winger added, “I would rather stumble forward and kind of mess up a little along the way and try to change the world than to just sit back. … I’m not worried about my identity. My identity is in Christ.” But “do I have the guts and the courage and the fortitude to stand up and continue to defend the truth against even this in-crowd that we’re talking about? That’s the test.”

5. God’s Word: The Anchor in the Cultural Storm

Above all, Perkins asserted, “We’ve got to be in the word of God, and we need to be in churches that are preaching the word of God” — especially “if we’re going to have the confidence to stand in this increasingly hostile culture.”

Furthermore, by being grounded in the word, Christians can better understand how the biblical worldview is not invalid. As Winger put it, “[W]e need to relearn how to be utterly unashamed of our Christian grounding … worldview … purposes, and reasons, and then explore the borders.” And if you’re accused of “trying to force your values on people,” he added, you can say, “Yes, I am. … Everyone’s trying to force values. I’m trying to force good values that are grounded in truth and God. … [Y]ou’re trying to force values that you see as valuable, you see as good, but they’re not grounded in truth, in God.”

“We’re in a moment,” Perkins observed. “How do we make the most of this?”

The panelists called Christians to action: mobilize, as Winger urged, by actively engaging culture; immerse yourself in Scripture, as Crain advocated, to ground your worldview; and embrace justice, as Faust emphasized, to protect the vulnerable. In a constitutional republic, Christians have the freedom to share their values boldly, and by anchoring themselves in God’s word, speaking truth with love, and standing firm without compromising, Christians can navigate a hostile world with grace, courage, and transformative impact.

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Poll Finds Rising Fears of Political Violence in the Aftermath of Kirk Assassination

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The shocking assassination of Christian and conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, a devoted father and husband known for his biblical and conservative values, has left Americans reeling. The targeted killing has ignited widespread concern about escalating violence, with many fearing they could be next.

A recent poll underscored this growing unease, asking, “How concerned are you about left-wing extremism in the U.S.?” The results were telling: 61% of all participants expressed some level of concern, with 90% of Republicans, 56% of Independents, and even 38% of Democrats admitting worry about left-wing extremism.

To balance the perspective, the survey also posed the same question about right-wing extremism. The response was as follows: 69% of respondents expressed concern overall. But as Breitbart summarized, “Overall, 88 percent of Democrats are concerned about right-wing extremism despite the fact that recent acts of political violence have been at the hands of the radical left, while 57 percent of independents say the same. Only 34 percent of Republicans are concerned about right-wing violence.”

The poll delved deeper, asking, “Do you think most political violence in the U.S. is committed by people on the left or the right?” The results showed a divided nation: 33% attributed most political violence to the Left, 29% pointed to the Right, and 24% believed it is committed “equally” by both sides. When asked if the country was heading down the right track, 28% said it was “generally headed in the right direction,” while 64% said it was “off on the wrong track.” Only 8% said they were unsure. Republicans, however, were the most optimistic (61% said America was heading in the general right direction) with 96% of Democrats saying the country is going in the wrong direction. Regardless, 67% of all respondents believe the country has become more politically divided in the last five years.

These sobering statistics come in the wake of not only Charlie Kirk’s assassination but also a string of recent tragedies. Just weeks prior, Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was brutally stabbed on a North Carolina light rail, high school students were gunned down in Colorado, and Catholic school children were targeted by a transgender-identifying gunman. These incidents have intensified fears of a society unraveling under the weight of ideological conflict.

And as Family Research Council’s Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement, told The Washington Stand, “Secularism offers no hope when circumstances are not great.”

The world, he continued, doesn’t “have an eternity with God to look forward to once sin and death have been defeated. The best it offers is a utopia in this life once the right people are in control. If that’s not going well, despair often sets in.” In such turbulent times, Backholm stressed, “Placing your hope in the wrong things is a great way to be disappointed, and secularism requires us to place our hope in the wrong things — like politics.” Additionally, “when we don’t have a doctrine of sin that helps us understand why the world is broken and our own role in that, we just end up blaming our political opponents for everything wrong in the world, which sets us on a path of disdain and hatred.”

This toxic combination, Backholm noted, creates a fertile ground for violence. “[T]he combination of hate and despair that secularism logically leads to is a recipe for bad things,” he said. While not every secularist turns to violence, “violence is a logical outcome when things are not going well.” He reminded Christians of Jesus’s warning: “Jesus promised us that people would hate us for following Him.” Yet, he urged believers to ensure that any hatred directed at them stems from their faithful witness to truth, not from “behaving terribly.”

Despite the darkness of these times, Backholm emphasized the enduring hope of the gospel. “The gospel is inherently hopeful,” he said. Christians, he argued, do not deny the reality of evil but are called to confront it fearlessly as ambassadors of truth. “Our job is to limit the power and influence of evil by being ambassadors for the truth, but that does not mean we will escape the consequences of the spiritual war we live in,” he added.

From an eternal perspective, Backholm concluded, the cost of engaging in this spiritual battle is far outweighed by its significance. “We’ll recognize it’s far worse to be irrelevant to the battle between good and evil than to suffer the consequences of engaging in the battle,” he said. “When we obey, our joy will be made complete, like Jesus promised. But we are also assured that two things will happen: people will be drawn to Jesus, and the enemies of God will hate us for it. The more effective we are, the more they will hate us. Expect it, but don’t fear it.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Trump Officials Preach Gospel, Praise God at Charlie Kirk Memorial Service

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Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was honored Sunday in a memorial service attended by President Donald Trump and members of his administration, where Kirk’s Christian faith took center stage. “It’s like an old-time revival, isn’t it?” the president asked, after listening to Charlie’s family, TPUSA colleagues, and friends in the administration preach the gospel for five hours in State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

“Eleven days ago, my friend was martyred for using his voice to engage in peaceful dialogue. Charlie’s assassin thought that he could steal and silence his voice by putting a bullet in his neck,” Kirk’s friend and TPUSA Chief of Staff Mikey McCoy recalled. Quoting philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, he continued, “The tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr dies and his rule has just begun. Charlie was not silenced. His movement is only beginning.” McCoy referenced one of Kirk’s frequently-worn t-shirts, featuring the slogan “live free,” and urged the tens of thousands gathered there to do so. “True freedom is not found in doing whatever we want, but pursuing Christ and doing what is right. In Charlie’s words, get married, have more children than you can afford, build a legacy, pass down your values, and pursue the eternal.”

TPUSA Chief Operating and Development Officer Justin Streiff recounted, “Charlie often said that having courage is one of the easiest things in the world, because all it requires is you to say yes. Courage does not require talent. It does not require natural ability. Courage requires a personal decision.” He observed that many have described Kirk as “completely fearless,” but said, “The truth is simpler and much more profound. Charlie simply refused to let fear stop him from carrying out God’s will for him and his life. His courage. His courage was a daily choice. A ‘Yes,’ no matter the cost. And it cost him his life.”

Andrew Kolvet, longtime executive producer of the “Charlie Kirk Show” podcast, spoke of the years he and Kirk spent building the show and its audience. “It’s only now that I’m beginning to realize what was going on all these years that I spent with Charlie,” Kolvet said. “We called them campus tours. Now I know they were really tent revivals, complete with a tent. Amen. We call it the ‘Charlie Kirk Show,’ but it was really just Charlie confronting the lies in the culture and pointing to the truth day in and day out.” Kolvet opined that his late friend “was a prophet. Not the fortune telling kind that could predict the future, but the biblical kind. He confronted evil and proclaimed the truth and called us to repent and be saved. Amen.”

Kirk’s fellow conservative media personalities and influencers also paid tribute to his faith. “Raise your hand if Charlie Kirk centered you a little closer to Christ,” instructed podcast host Benny Johnson. “Who’s seen the full churches, the full parking lots? Who knows somebody now who’s a Satanist or an agnostic who’s now looking at Charlie’s life in this revival moment in our country and going, ‘Maybe I got it all wrong. Maybe I do need to Christ-center my life.”

Johnson also called on members of the Trump administration to be godly men and good Christian rulers. “God has instituted them. God has given them power over our nation and our land. God saved our president, President Trump, from an assassin’s bullet for this moment,” he said, indicating the administration officials present. “And what does the Apostle Paul in Romans say about godly leadership? He says that rulers wield the sword for the protection of good men and for the terror of evil men,” Johnson noted. “May we pray that our rulers here, rightfully instituted and given power by our God, wield the sword for the terror of evil men in our nation, in Charlie’s memory.”

“Charlie’s death was not just a murder. The true word for what Charlie did is sacrifice,” said Human Events Senior Editor Jack Posobiec. “You see, the difference between murder and sacrifice is that sacrifice is a gift, sacrifice is that last full measure of devotion for God, for country, and for his people, and for his family,” he continued. “Are you ready to continue the mission? Are you ready to fight back? And are you ready to put on the full armor of God and face the evil in high places and the spiritual warfare before us? Then put on the full armor of God.”

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson pointed to the tens of thousands gathered to honor Kirk’s legacy and pray for his family and quipped, “Whatever happens next in America, I hope it’s in this direction. Because God is here and you can feel it.” Carlson noted that Christ’s death on the cross didn’t “shut Him up,” as religious and political leaders of the time had hoped. “It doesn’t work that way. Everything is inverted. And the Beatitudes tell it I think the most crisply. Everything is sort of the opposite of what you think it’s going to be. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. That is true. And you can feel it here.”

“Politics, at its core, is a process of critiquing other people and getting them to change. Christianity, the gospel message, the message of Jesus, begins with repentance. Christianity calls upon you to change,” Carlson clarified. “Our core prayer, given to us by Jesus, the Lord’s Prayer, demands that we forgive other people, but preceding that is a request for our forgiveness. In other words, forgive us our sins,” he continued. “That is a call to change our hearts from Jesus. And that is the only way forward in this country. That is the only solution to where we all know we’re going.”

Renowned neurosurgeon and former Trump administration figure Dr. Ben Carson also spoke, marveling at the “revival” inspired by Kirk’s Christian faith. “Have you noticed that a lot of preachers don’t want to talk about what’s in the Bible, if it’s counter to the social gospel? Well, I challenge the ministers out there to talk about what the Bible says and not what the leftists say,” Carson declared. “And get on board of the revival that is coming. We are not going to be able to stop it. You see evidence of it right here in this stadium. We’re all going to be a part of it.” Citing John 12:24, Carson continued, “‘Verily, verily, I say unto you … except a kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.’ And I want to thank Charlie for his sacrifice, because much fruit is going to be realized.”

Members of the Trump administration, many of them Kirk’s friends, also spoke, calling for Christian virtue and bravery to arise anew in the country. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard said, “Charlie was fearless. But where did his fearlessness come from? The answer lies in Corinthians.” The DNI then cited 2 Corinthians 5:6-9:

“Therefore be always of good courage and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. We are of good courage, I say, and prefer to be absent from the body and at home with the Lord. Therefore we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him.”

“Every one of us needs to be a warrior like Charlie, to take shelter in God, to draw strength and fearlessness from the Lord,” Gabbard advised. “God says, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am with you. I will strengthen you and help you.’ And He is with us. He sits within every one of our hearts, just waiting for us to choose Him to say, as Charlie did, ‘God, use me for your will.’”

“Charlie’s overarching passion was his Christianity and his devotion to his God,” observed Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who identifies as Catholic. “He believed what Saint Francis taught us almost a thousand years ago, that we should strive to live our lives in perfect imitation of Christ, that we should turn every day and every moment and every interaction into a prayer.” He added, “And Charlie understood the great paradox that it’s only by surrender to God that God’s power can flow into our lives and make us effective human beings.”

The Secretary of the newly-renamed War Department, Pete Hegseth, praised Kirk as a husband, father, and political activist, but noted that “more importantly, he was a true believer. Only Christ is King, our Lord and Savior. Our sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus. Fear God and fear no man. That was Charlie Kirk.” Hegseth recalled that Kirk brought his political debates to college campuses, but “over time, he realized, like so many of us have, that this is not a political war. It’s not even a cultural war. It’s a spiritual war. Faith and family first. There is a God.” He added, “Charlie started with liberty but ended up lighting our country on fire for Christ. He started Turning Point USA but this moment is the turning point for the USA. Right now.”

“Charlie Kirk, a warrior for country. A warrior for Christ. He ran the race. He finished the fight. Now it’s our turn,” Hegseth said. “My charge to all of you: Live worthy of Charlie Kirk’s sacrifice and put Christ at the center of your life as he advocated for, giving his.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been a friend and supporter of Kirk’s for years, opined, “I imagine there are people watching here tonight that didn’t know much about Charlie Kirk until 11 days ago. Maybe they were disengaged from politics. Maybe they were partially engaged. I hope one of the things they take from this is that the movement Charlie Kirk led and started and gave fuel to was about politics, but not only about politics.” Rubio continued:

“One of the things [Charlie] wants us to take away from this, from all of this, is the following: His deep belief that we were all created, every single one of us, before the beginning of time by the hands of the God of the universe, an all-powerful God who loved us and created us for the purpose of living with Him in eternity. But then sin entered the world and separated us from our Creator. And so God took on the form of a man and came down and lived among us. And He suffered like men, and He died like a man. But on the third day He rose, unlike any mortal man. And to prove any doubters wrong, He ate with His disciples so they could see, and they touched His wounds. He didn’t rise as a ghost or as a spirit, but His flesh. And then He rose to Heaven. But He promised He would return. And He will. … Because He took on that death, because He carried that cross, we were freed from the sin that separated us from Him. And when He returns, there will be a new Heaven and a new earth, and we will all be together. And we are going to have a great reunion there again with Charlie and all the people we love.”

Vice President J.D. Vance, a longtime friend of Kirk’s, stated, “The evil murderer who took Charlie from us expected us to have a funeral today. And instead, my friends, we have had a revival in celebration of Charlie Kirk and of his Lord Jesus Christ.” Crediting Kirk’s influence, Vance shared, “I was telling somebody backstage that I always felt a little uncomfortable talking about my faith in public, as much as I love the Lord and as much as it was an important part of my life. I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life.”

“Charlie suffered a terrible fate, my friends. We all know it, we all saw it. But it is not the worst fate. It is better to face a gunman than to live your life afraid to speak the truth,” Vance declared. “It is better to be persecuted for your faith than to deny the kingship of Christ. It is better to die a young man in this world than to sell your soul for an easy life with no purpose, no risk, no love, and no truth,” he continued. “Christ told us in the Gospel of John, ‘I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart. I have overcome the world.’ Charlie took heart, and now we must do the same.”

Across social media, many expressed amazement that so many high-ranking administration officials would so clearly proclaim the gospel. “Every speech for five hours in a row declared Jesus Christ as our lord and savior. We’ve never seen anything like this,” quipped Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh. “It’s quite possible we are now witnessing the largest singular proclamation of the gospel in all of human history,” suggested The Blaze’s Steve Deace. Author Megan Basham said, “This memorial is the nail in the coffin of third-wayism. Praise God. No more lukewarm, inoffensive Christianity.”

Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council, said in comments to The Washington Stand, “Just because people say religious things doesn’t mean they’re actually on God’s team, but this feels different than religious pandering we’ve seen in the past.” He continued, “This isn’t about trying to manipulate people for their vote, but there seems to be a growing awareness of the spiritual battle we’re living and a real desire to encourage people to be on God’s side.” Backholm added, “This will be upsetting to the demons, but the rest of us should be very encouraged. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.”

Perhaps the most powerful Christian witness of the day, however, came from Kirk’s own widow, Erika. “More than anything, Charlie wanted to do not his will, but God’s will. And over these past 11 days, through all the pain, never before have I found as much comfort as I now do in the words of our Lord’s Prayer, ‘Thy will be done,’” Erika shared. Recounting some of the difficulties and sorrows she has weathered since losing her husband, Erika said, “Most of all, God’s mercy and God’s love have been revealed to me these past 10 days after Charlie’s assassination. We didn’t see violence. We didn’t see rioting. We didn’t see revolution.” She continued, “Instead, we saw what my husband always prayed he would see in this country. We saw revival. This past week, we saw people open a Bible for the first time in a decade. We saw people pray for the first time since they were children. We saw people go to a church service for the first time in their entire lives.”

“To those of you out there who just made that decision and took the first step toward a spiritual life, I say thank you and welcome. One day I hope you look back and realize it was the most important decision of your life. Because it is,” Erika said, addressing the crowd. “All of you who are already believers. It is your job to shepherd these people. Do not take that lightly. Water the seed of their faith, protect it, and help it grow.” Erika encouraged young men and young women to be godly, virtuous husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, and to “revive the American family.”

“Charlie passionately wanted to reach and save the Lost Boys of the West, the young men who feel like they have no direction, no purpose, no faith, and no reason to live, the men wasting their lives on distractions and the men consumed with resentment, anger, and hate,” Erika recalled of her husband’s work and mission. “He wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life. That young man, that young man,” she said, through tears. “On the cross, our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they [do] not know what they do.’ That man, that young man. I forgive him,” Erika said, turning her eyes to Heaven. The stadium erupted in cheers. Erika concluded encouraging Americans, “Choose prayer. Choose courage. Choose beauty. Choose adventure. Choose family. Choose a life of faith. Most importantly, choose Christ.”

Over 63,000 were present in the State Farm Stadium for the memorial service, while tens of thousands gathered outside and across the street, where the service was being broadcast. Video of the service has garnered over 20 million views between YouTube and X.

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLES:

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Crime and What the Pundits Meant

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Fewer Americans Believe ‘Changing Gender’ Is ‘Morally Acceptable’: Poll

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A new Gallup poll shows the LGBT agenda continues to lose support, as fewer Americans believe attempting to change one’s gender is “morally acceptable” than felt that way in 2021.

“The current 40% of U.S. adults who believe that changing genders is morally acceptable is down six points from 2021, while the latest 54% who think it is morally wrong is similar to prior readings,” stated the poll, released this week. “Partisans’ opinions differ significantly, with 71% of Democrats, 45% of independents and 9% of Republicans saying that changing one’s gender is morally acceptable. Republicans’ opinions have changed the most since 2021, falling by 13 points.”

While the number of Democrats who support transgenderism has risen since 2021, the support among registered Independents has fallen by three percentage points and six points among all American adults during the same time. Gallup similarly found Republican support for same-sex marriage crumbling.

The poll is one of many showing the LGBT agenda losing support in recent years. The percentage of Americans who believe same-sexual relationships are “morally acceptable” fell by 7% last year, the largest decrease of any of the moral issues posed by Gallup pollsters in their annual Values and Beliefs poll, released last June. A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released last Friday found that 82% of parents favor “legislation that would strengthen parental rights over their children”; 77% oppose transgender injections or surgeries for minors (including 67% of Democrats and 77% of Independents); and 70% say schools should not teach children their gender is a choice (including 54% of Democrats).

Another poll found, since 2022, the American people have become:

  • 10 points more likely to say the transgender industry should not be able to prey on minors
  • 8 points more likely to support laws protecting sex-specific spaces such as restrooms
  • 8 points more likely to oppose allowing transgender-identified athletes to compete against athletes of the opposite sex
  • 6 points more likely to say public education should not smuggle transgender ideology into the classroom

“First, the mood of the country has changed, so people probably feel more free to say what they actually believe,” Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. “Cancel culture has lost much of its power so people don’t perceive the same risk from saying there are only two sexes and they can’t be changed.”

“Second,” he continued, “people understand its not just a matter of personal choice. There are consequences for what we believe, and pretending we can be anything we want is creating cultural chaos.”

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

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The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Sustaining the Consensus Against Violent Social Change

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A new article at NBC News completely flips reality about the recent bombing at a California fertility clinic, comparing the assault to attacks on abortion facilities.

Titled “Bombing at IVF clinic should be a security wake-up call for fertility centers, experts say,” the story by Elizabeth Chuck ignores the fact that the Palm Springs atrocity, in which the bomber died and four bystanders were injured, was perpetrated by a self-proclaimed anti-humanist who believed that bringing children into the world is wrong. The bomber, Guy Edward Bartkus, left behind a manifesto proclaiming his goal was to “sterilize this planet of the disease of life.” He was, in short, not a pro-lifer by any measurement, but the radical opposite.

Media reports like this one illustrate the now, near-ubiquitous challenge of what-aboutism, where what should be a sustainable consensus against violence from any quarter is converted into a tit-for-tat about one side or the other of public debates seeming to excuse such actions by its allies. The truth is that there is violence today on both sides of many hotly contested issues, and it is also true that most proponents of various causes reject such tactics as extreme. Maintaining this moral consistency has proven to be very difficult, but the facts about the prevalence of violence remind us of the urgent need for balance and self-restraint in what has become an aggravating blame game.

Take some of the most notorious criminal acts of the last several years. Besides the attack by Bartkus, as Wesley Smith notes in a must-read article at National Review, there has been a wave of antipathy to human existence in both the intellectual press and on the street. Smith cites an incident in 2010 where an assailant at the Discovery Channel demanded that the television service stop “encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants.”

Smith goes on to recap articles from the last few years in prestigious publications like the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of Medical Ethics that cast a relentlessly bleak picture of human existence and call for the end not only of policies that encourage childbearing but for any childbearing at all. In 2012, a planned mass shooting at Family Research Council was thwarted by the heroic action of building operations manager Leo Johnson, who sustained a serious wound when a man angered by FRC’s stances on sexual conduct invaded the FRC headquarters.

Far from isolated incidents, these kinds of crimes can become commonplace as a result of news events extremists label intolerable. Last month, a California man bent on killing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh pleaded guilty to attempted assassination, blaming his actions on the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion on abortion and other judicial actions he believed were responsible for the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. In the wake of the high court’s June 2022 ruling in the Dobbs case, attacks were launched against nonprofit pregnancy help centers across the United States. Varying in severity, and with fortunately no loss of life, an estimated total of more than 100 assaults occurred on centers and churches across the United States. Apprehensions and prosecution of individuals responsible were rare under the Biden administration but did occur under the federal FACE Act.

None of this is to say that opponents of abortion and objectors to other public policies have been immune from committing similar deeds. The individuals imprisoned for peacefully blocking access to abortion facilities may have been selectively prosecuted and disproportionately punished, but there is little question they violated the same federal law that protects pregnancy help centers and churches from illegal acts. Over the long history of the abortion debate, the killing of abortionists has occurred in Colorado, Kansas, Florida, Georgia, and several other states. Director-actor Clint Eastwood made the film “Richard Jewell” about a security cop who was wrongly prosecuted after he foiled a bomb attack on the Olympic Village in Atlanta. The actual perpetrator, one Eric Rudolph, was identified and convicted in 2005 for his role in the bombing of a gay nightclub and an abortion facility in Birmingham, Alabama, years earlier. He is serving multiple terms of life imprisonment for these actions.

Understanding why individuals resort to violence, and why more individuals now justify that resort, including when actions occur on the scale of the Black Lives Matter riots and the January 6, 2021 incursion into the U.S. Capitol, is a vital question of our time. It is a sad condition when one hears the first reports of a violent incident, a Tesla exploding outside a Las Vegas hotel or a car bomb outside an IVF facility, and immediately waits for news whether the perpetrator was “one of ours.” Because the truth is, people who abandon the law and resort to these actions, whatever their motive, are never one of ours, whether they are anti-natalists or militant pro-lifers or race partisans or election deniers. The temptation to which NBC News succumbed with trying to tie Bartkus to opponents of various IVF practices is another chapter of the continuing tragedy of what-aboutism.

It is vital that debates about ethical matters, especially those as potent as abortion and test tube babies, proceed without the injection of point-scoring masquerading as insight. On the eve of the release of expected policy recommendations on IVF from the Trump administration, the choice is not merely between massive public funding of this practice or endorsement of the Guy Bartkuses of the world. The choice is between rational, principled, public debate and a collapse into governing by fear, intimidation, or neglect.

It does little to defend democracy when smaller numbers than ever turn out to exercise it at the ballot box. The more passionate and portentous the issue, the more essential this commitment to peaceful change becomes. Add to the brew the fact, obvious from recent elections, that the United States is a sharply divided country on some of the most fundamental questions: what is a man or woman, who is a human being, are the disabled equally valuable, what is marriage? The side of these questions that not only makes the better argument but also appeals to our better nature, that eschews violence of action or rhetoric, that moves with compassion and clarity, is the side that can, and will deserve to, prevail.

Meanwhile, as Wesley Smith so persuasively demonstrates, the strain of nihilism running through today’s intellectual culture is far deeper than that of one madman who was bereft of fatherly presence or civil guidance. Today’s isolated and violent souls are increasingly fed by isolating ideologies for whom human doom is always just around the corner. Our most prominent journals would do well to do some couples therapy over their attraction to such thinking and stop publishing so much rancor, not because they do not have the right to do so but because it isn’t right to do so. The human future is only as bleak or bright as we are willing to make it.

AUTHOR

Chuck Donovan

Chuck Donovan served in the Reagan White House as a senior writer and as Deputy Director of Presidential Correspondence until early 1989. He was executive vice president of Family Research Council, a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation, and founder/president of Charlotte Lozier Institute from 2011 to 2024. He has written and spoken extensively on issues in life and family policy.

RELATED ARTICLE: Trump Admin. Frees Nation’s Largest Christian College from Biden’s $37.7M Fine

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Advertising or Manipulating? The Use of AI in Children’s Advertisements

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In an era where artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly permeates various facets of society, its application in influencing behavior — particularly among vulnerable populations like children — raises significant ethical and legal concerns.

The concept of “nudging,” introduced by behavioral economists Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein in 2008, involves subtly guiding individuals toward certain decisions by leveraging cognitive biases. While initially proposed as a tool for public policy to promote beneficial behaviors, the integration of AI into nudging strategies has transformed its scope and impact, especially in advertising directed at children. Therefore, finding a balanced regulatory approach to this issue is vital.

In May 2024, the BBB National Programs’ Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) issued a compliance warning emphasizing the application of its Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children’s Advertising and Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children’s Online Privacy Protection to the use of artificial intelligence in advertising and data collection practices directed at children. In particular, they took issue with advertisements using AI that could mislead children about product characteristics, blur the distinction between reality and fantasy, or create a false sense of personal connection with brands, celebrities, or influencers.

Additionally, the document highlights that advertisers must ensure that AI does not reinforce harmful stereotypes or unsafe behaviors. From a privacy standpoint, companies utilizing AI in child-directed content must transparently disclose their data collection practices and obtain verifiable parental consent before gathering personal information from children.

These self-regulatory guidelines align with the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA), which establishes legal procedures for obtaining parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing a child’s personal information. However, while COPPA and CARU’s guidelines provide essential safeguards, they primarily rely on industry self-regulation, leaving gaps in enforcement and compliance.

The EU’s Stricter Regulatory Stance

The European Union (EU) has taken a markedly different approach to AI’s role in influencing children. The AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive piece of legislation on AI, explicitly prohibits AI systems from exploiting age-related vulnerabilities, recognizing children as a particularly susceptible group. Unlike CARU’s self-regulatory model, the AI Act imposes legally binding requirements on companies, particularly for high-risk AI applications such as those used in education and digital advertising.

The EU’s regulatory framework mandates that AI-generated content, such as deepfakes, be clearly labeled, and users must be notified when interacting with AI. Furthermore, high-risk AI applications must undergo strict risk assessment procedures to ensure they do not harm children’s rights. This level of regulatory scrutiny stands in contrast to the U.S.’s approach, which focuses more on corporate responsibility than on enforceable restrictions.

AI Nudging: A Form of Manipulation?

The broader ethical concerns surrounding AI nudging extend beyond children’s advertising, but adversely affect the youth as well. Behavioral nudging has become a powerful instrument in marketing, often without consumers’ explicit awareness. Yuval Noah Harari warned in 2018 that as AI advances, it will become easier to manipulate individuals by tapping into their deepest emotions and desires. This concern is particularly relevant in the digital marketplace, where AI-powered nudges shape consumer preferences in ways that challenge the foundations of liberal market economies.

In a free-market model, consumers exert counterpressure on producers by making informed choices, compelling businesses to offer competitive products at fair prices. However, AI-driven nudging distorts this mechanism by subtly influencing consumer behavior, potentially reducing genuine choice and diminishing market transparency. The same logic applies to democratic participation, as AI’s ability to shape opinions raises concerns about election integrity and informed decision-making.

The Policy Divide: Innovation vs. Regulation

The regulatory debate over AI’s role in nudging reflects broader tensions between innovation and consumer protection. The Biden administration’s Executive Order 14110 emphasized the need for safeguards in AI deployment, prioritizing responsible AI development. However, the Trump administration’s recent executive order rescinded these regulations, aiming to eliminate perceived bureaucratic obstacles to American AI dominance.

This policy shift underscores the ideological divide between a regulatory approach that prioritizes accountability and a laissez-faire model that seeks to maintain the U.S.’s competitive edge in AI innovation. While minimizing regulatory barriers may accelerate technological advancement, it also raises the risk of unchecked AI applications with significant ethical and societal implications.

The Need for a Balanced Approach

AI-driven nudging, particularly in child-directed advertising, presents a complex challenge that requires a nuanced regulatory approach. While self-regulatory frameworks like CARU’s guidelines serve as an essential first step, they lack the enforceability needed to prevent manipulative practices effectively. In contrast, the EU’s AI Act demonstrates a more robust commitment to protecting vulnerable populations from AI-driven influence.

A balanced approach should integrate elements of both models: fostering innovation while implementing enforceable safeguards to prevent exploitation. Policymakers must consider stricter transparency requirements, enforceable ethical guidelines, and independent oversight mechanisms to ensure that AI serves the public interest rather than undermining autonomy and market integrity.

As AI continues to evolve, so too must the legal and ethical frameworks governing its use.

AUTHOR

Monika Mercz

Monika Mercz is a visiting researcher at The George Washington University. She is a Hungarian lawyer, focusing on how AI can be used to better protect children.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

How Do We Lower Crime, Poverty, and Substance Abuse? Bring Back Two-Parent Families.

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The 2024 election revealed that an increasing number of Americans realize that the woke, DEI, transgender, Marxist policies pushed onto the country by the Biden administration and Democrats over the last four years are destroying our nation. We want to return to common-sense policies that will end illegal immigration, human trafficking, and drug trafficking, lower homelessness and crime, and enable families to afford food, gas, and housing again.

Family Research Council’s Joseph Backholm recently talked on the “Outstanding” podcast about how Americans can achieve these goals with founder and president of TakeCharge, Kendall Qualls. TakeCharge is an organization committed to supporting the notion that the promise of America works for everyone regardless of race or social status. They advocate for faith-based education.

Get Back to the Roots of Faith, Family, and Education

Qualls says that the 2024 election results give us a political reprieve, but that the real onus is on us as citizens. Being American citizens requires active participation — especially from the church. He is calling on the church to wake up, saying, “I think for the last 30 to 40 years, we’ve been asleep at the wheel.”

Qualls knows the importance of faith and family first-hand, explaining, “Having grown up in a divorced family, a broken family,” he wanted “something different.” He didn’t know what that was, but, Qualls reiterated, “I just wanted something different. I had to take ownership myself. I had to take charge. And that’s the essence of our organization. And it is helping our … culture, especially in the black community, get back to the roots of faith, family, and education. That’s who the culture was before we had ‘help’ from the government.”

Men and Women, Take Charge

Qualls shared alarming data that “even in the worst of times in the black community in the history of our country … when I was five years old, 80% of the black community’s children were born in two-parent families. … Today, it’s approximately 80% fatherless homes that those kids are born in.” Sadly, fatherlessness is expanding in the Hispanic and white communities as well. These are not children in divorced homes — they never had married parents to begin with.

According to TakeCharge’s website, fatherless kids comprise 75% of children in substance abuse centers, 71% of high school dropouts, 90% of homeless and runaway children, 75% of rapists, and 70% of youth in juvenile detention centers.

In fact, the United States has the highest rate of children living in single-parent households among any country in the world. As Jack Brewer and others are pointing out, almost one out of every four children in the United States live in single-parent homes. This is the highest percentage of any country. The world average is just 7%. In America, nearly 24 million children live without their biological fathers in the home.

Qualls described a study in 2004 that ought to be shared all over the country. He said it “showed that even with economic disparities, when black and Hispanic kids are in two-parent families and there is a faith … component to that family, the academic disparities just disappear. … [T]hey graduate, they perform at parity of their peers as regular Americans because the formula works. … They’ve buried this data for literally years because they don’t want to promote the traditional nuclear family.” He went on to say, “Marriage rates within the black community and Hispanic community lowers poverty literally by 80%.”

Churches, Take Charge

“We don’t have a systemic racism problem, we have the fatherless home problem,” Qualls insisted. Thankfully, black communities and churches are heeding that warning, and more and more are waking up to just how devastating the consequences of fatherlessness is. Qualls explained:

“Look, my parents lived through the Jim Crow South. They would have loved to have grown up in the America I grew up in. And what I share when I go into the black community … is evidence. … Everything we’ve done [has] to be evidence-based, peer-reviewed journals. … Our prisons are full of young men [who] would love to have had a father growing up.

And when I … talk to women in our community, [I say], ‘God did not intend for you to raise children alone.’ They all nod their head up and down. They don’t know where to go [or] what to do next. Instead of the church embracing the whole social justice narrative, they said, ‘Yes, we do have disparities because we’re not living the way we intended to live. This is not who we are. … We have ignored the strength of the traditional nuclear family.’”

TakeCharge has an army of Christian black men and women who are going into churches across the country to share the message about the necessity of waiting to have children until marriage. They also offer a Fatherhood Impact Award, recognizing fathers in front of their church congregation on Father’s Day with a TakeCharge representative and the senior pastor awarding them certificates, prize money, a copy of their book, “The Man Code,” and featuring them in their local newspaper.

Schools, Take Charge

Another way that TakeCharge is helping to lower poverty in communities is by equipping churches to start their own schools through the Washington Academy. Qualls explained, “We have an arm of … generous benefactors … that are helping us to fund this. … We are going to churches and we’re leasing out their space that’s relatively empty or low-occupied during the week for these schools. … Our schools are called ‘Washington Academy.’ We named it after George Washington and Booker T. Washington.”

Washington Academy offers an affordable Christian classical curriculum with high standards. Their mission is to create a learning environment where faith and academics work hand-in-hand, laying a strong foundation for lifelong success. They have their own content and also partner with Hillsdale Academy and PragerU.

Thankfully, the Washington Academy is in high demand. Qualls is happy to report that “more people, more churches … are wanting to open schools than we have the resources for. To be honest with you, all of the praise to the Lord, if I could open them … today, we probably would have 20 churches … if I had the funding for it.” Churches in South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Nebraska, Michigan, Nevada, and Arizona have all reached out, wanting to start a Washington Academy.

Pastors and Churches, Your Mission Field Is the Schools in Your Backyard

Qualls closed his discussion with Backholm by calling on pastors to lead their communities, saying, “You know, we need our pastors to step up to the plate. I mean … it’s not going to be solved only by politics. I think we got a reprieve from a political standpoint right now. But we need Christian Bible-centered pastors. This is a calling upon the church from a mission standpoint. … If you think you’ve got missions that are overseas, we’ve got it right here in our country and in our backyards, in our public schools. And that’s what we need to go into. Seminaries need to get on board with this too.”

AUTHOR

Kathy Athearn

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

McDonald’s Walks Away from Super-Sized Wokeness

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The calendar may have changed, but 2025 is picking up right where last year left off in the battle against corporate wokeness. In the biggest shocker since Walmart, fast-food icon McDonald’s announced that after years of force-feeding DEI to shareholders and customers, political neutrality is back on the menu.

For activists, the news is even more astonishing since the Golden Arches had a perfect 100% score on LGBT activism from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) just last year. But, like so many boardrooms before it, McDonald’s decided to surrender before Robby Starbuck even declared war. In a letter made public Monday, the hamburger chain announced to their owner/operators, employees, and suppliers that this new year meant turning a new leaf on diversity. Although they declare their steadfast commitment to “inclusion,” Chairman and CEO Chris Kempczinski, along with McDonald’s top leaders, spent the final half of the letter explaining that they’ve identified practices that they intend to “modify,” including:

  • The retirement of “aspirational representation goals” (i.e. diversity quotas in hiring)
  • The “pausing” of “external surveys” like HRC’s radical Corporate Equality Index
  • The end of its “Supply Chain’s Mutual Commitment to DEI pledge.”

While some of this may have been in the works, the changes were hastened by activist Robby Starbuck, who’d contacted the company on Friday and warned the marketing director that he was about to expose McDonald’s woke policies. And while there are things Starbuck wishes the company had worded differently or committed to, he acknowledges that this chain “wasn’t one of the worst to begin with.” But, he emphasized, McDonald’s was “on our list of companies, and there are many companies that we aim to change.”

“Companies need to stay out of divisive issues unless it’s related directly to the regulation of their business,” Starbuck insisted in a video on X. “They should not be involved in politics. We don’t want to know what Macy’s thinks about trans rights, okay? And do you know what? If they want to speak up and talk about it, we don’t want to spend our money there,” he said. “We have a right as customers to know how the money is being spent later. And then we can decide if we want to give our money to that company. And in many cases, now we are waking up and saying, ‘No, we don’t want to give our money to this company that hates our values and everything we believe in.’”

McDonald’s joins a ballooning list of big-name brands like Walmart, Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley Davidson, Polaris, Indian Motorcycle, Lowe’s, Ford, Coors, Black & Decker, Jack Daniels, DeWalt tools, Craftsman, Caterpillar, Boeing, Toyota, and Nissan, who’ve all made the shift to the better business practices Americans demand.

“We’ve now changed policy at companies worth well over $2.3 [t]rillion dollars,” Starbuck declared, “with many millions of employees who have better workplace environments as a result. Our campaigns are so effective that we’re getting the biggest companies on earth to change their policies without me even posting a story exposing their woke policies first. Companies can see that America wants sanity back. The era of wokeness is dying right in front of our eyes. The landscape of corporate America is quickly shifting to sanity and neutrality. We are the trend, not the anomaly anymore. We’re winning,” he insists, “and one by one we WILL bring sanity back to corporate America.”

In the minds of many people, including Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, this is a pivotal moment. “I do believe,” he explained on “Washington Watch” Tuesday, “that there is an open door right now.” Christians, he urged, need to be “talking truth, speaking the truth, talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ, confessing the Lord Jesus Christ, putting these things out there in the public domain, and having that discussion. This is not a time to hold back. It’s not a time to be timid. It’s time to be compassionate, kind, [and] civil in our conversation. But we need to exercise these freedoms so that we can strengthen them and keep them.”

No one knows how long commonsense Americans will have the momentum. “It could be a very short window,” Perkins acknowledged, “but we need to take it, utilize it, and make the most of it.” It’s ironic, he pointed out, because we’re living in the best of times and the worst of times. He talked about the violence, the murder and crime rates, and so many other problems the country is facing. All of that, the FRC president believes, “fed into this election. People have had enough of it.”

And right now, “People are so desperate that they’re open to moving away from the woke ideology — the leftist ideas of silencing. And this is a moment to bring truth to the table, have frank conversations, because we know the truth can bring us to a place of consensus, but also [to a place of] resolution [in] some of these issues that are facing our local communities. So again, I just can’t encourage people enough to take this moment to respectfully [and] redemptively as Ephesians 6 says, [speak] the truth in love.”

As he underscored, “We’re not trying to win a debate here. We’re trying to win hearts and minds — and we’re trying to set people free with the truth. But this is the time to have those conversations. This is that door of opportunity that I believe has been opened to our country, and to the church in particular, in the wake of the events that have occurred.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

For Anyone ‘Facing Evil,’ New Bonhoeffer Movie Is Bound to ‘Inspire and Encourage’

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Many of us want to believe that, in the face of severe adversity and risk, we would try to prove worthy of a memorable legacy. Indeed, should circumstances ever turn sour, we hope to fancy ourselves as brave, courageous, and willing to stand firm no matter the cost. And yet, for the vast majority of those who have not been severely challenged in such ways, how could we know for sure the way we would react? This is why examples of people who did stand firm in the midst of trial are not just important, but necessary.

Deitrich Bonhoeffer is one of those examples. Maybe you’ve heard the name — maybe you haven’t. Nonetheless, it’s a name worth knowing. Bonhoeffer was a German theologian, pastor, and author. But what makes him stand out in ways not many can is that Bonhoeffer was also a spy and an assassin who sacrificed his life to take apart Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime’s Third Reich as they sought to exterminate the Jews. Bonhoeffer’s story is powerful, and at its very heart is the call to boldly oppose what is wicked — a call applicable to all.

For these reasons (and more), a team has been working tirelessly for over a decade to create the film, “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” According to one of the producers, Camille Kampouris, the hope behind this movie is “to raise up men and women, old and young, to be like Bonhoeffer, to speak out when there’s evil.” According to The Christian Post, “Releasing in theaters this Thanksgiving weekend, the movie explores the theologian’s decision to shift from preaching peace to allegedly plotting murder, a crime that could alter the course of history.”

Angel Studios has brought Bonhoeffer back to life by taking viewers on a cinematic journey of danger and determination. As Kampouris added, this movie also highlights both the failures of the church as well as “what a real Christian should be like.” Filmmaker Todd Komarnicki explained how “Bonhoeffer is unlike who we are today.” He added that this movie is not targeted specifically at a Christian audience, as Bonhoeffer’s story could impact anyone. He stated, “His singular courage, his willingness to lose everything, and he had a lot to lose, really stands out in a time where I don’t see a lot of political courage now. The way he grappled with his faith, in the way he was honest about his doubts … [and] followed his calling from God, all the way to the foot of the cross. This man’s life is so extraordinary.”

On Friday’s episode of “Washington Watch” with Family Research Council’s guest host Jody Hice, another producer of the film, John Scanlon, unpacked this striking narrative. According to Scanlon, “The movie is a beautiful production by top Hollywood talent about an amazing story.” More than that, Bonhoeffer is “an inspiring character and someone that will make you come out of the movie wishing that you could be a better version of yourself.”

Hice asked, “What was the experience like in filming a movie like this that you know is true?” For Scanlon, “[T]he experience every day of being on set was deeply spiritual.” He continued, “Bonhoeffer’s life is so rich and … he wrote so many wonderful works. … He was a very prolific author. And, of course, his experience in Harlem in the United States [and] his experience in Germany traveling around the world, all changed him and influenced his thinking.”

Ultimately, Scanlon emphasized, “the Bonhoeffer that we bring to the screen is complex. He’s a man of action as well as a man of thought and words. … I think that he can be an inspiration.” He concluded that for anyone of any worldview “who’s facing evil … I guarantee … they’ll find something in this film to inspire and encourage them. And that’s what we’re hoping for everyone in the audience.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Jaguar Rebranded: The Woke War against Normal

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Marketing campaigns are, it is generally recognized, an attempt to sell a particular product or service. This can be done in any number of ways, from presenting a product as enticing to showcasing the necessity of a product to using humor or star power to generate appeal. In almost all cases, however, it is advisable to feature the product itself in one’s marketing campaigns. World-renowned automobile manufacturer Jaguar has, as of late, opted to disregard this latter standard — or, indeed, any of the aforementioned standards — and debuted a new marketing campaign comprised solely of the bizarre.

In addition to unveiling a new logo — which noticeably does not feature the company’s iconic, eponymous, pouncing big cat — Jaguar launched a new ad this week. The ad featured a host of androgynous individuals clad in brightly-colored outfits of a design so strange that the denizens of the Capitol in “The Hunger Games” appear commonplace and well-adjusted.

The ad features an Asian man wearing a yellow tank top and matching vinyl tutu, a black man (I am presuming that it is a man, anyway) sporting an afro that seems to be missing an entire quarter of itself and wearing a skintight red bodysuit with furry boots that look as though they could have been designed by Dr. Seuss in delirium, a black woman with a shaved head wearing a dress that resembles badly-arranged tissue paper sticking out of the top of a gift bag, a man who looks alarmingly similar to actress Tilda Swinton and is clothed in a garish orange dress seemingly made of rubber, and a whole cast of other bizarre figures of unsettling appearance and uncertain gender. The ad also features large pink rocks, upside-down rooms, and the brightest yellow elevator doors one could envision. What the ad does not feature is a Jaguar.

It wasn’t always this way, of course. Jaguar was once reputed for making the coolest cars ever, and everyone knew it. James Bond drove a Jaguar (2002’s “Die Another Day” and 2015’s “Spectre” are prime examples); a Jaguar made a memorable appearance in the “Fast and Furious” franchise; and pop stars from Jay Z to Lana Del Rey have featured the car in their glamorous music videos.

In 2015, less than 10 years ago, Jaguar launched an ad campaign headlined by English movie stars Ben Kinglsey, Mark Strong, and Tom Hiddleston, all three of whom are known for playing villains. As Strong and Hiddleston race to a luxurious mansion, Strong behind the wheel of a Jaguar and Hiddleston being outpaced in a helicopter, the trio of actors discuss the English heritage of the Jaguar and why Brits make such excellent movie villains. As Strong and Hiddleston arrive at the mansion, Kingsley, having freshly donned a sleek bow tie and dinner jacket, intones, “Oh, yes. It’s good to be bad.”

That ad campaign understood who the buyer is and what he’s looking for. Nobody buys a Jaguar because it’s affordable or convenient or fuel efficient. People buy Jaguars because they’re cool, sleek, seductive, and powerful. Movie villains, especially the sort portrayed by the likes of Kingsley, Strong, and Hiddleston, exude the very elegance, power, and affluence that Jaguar was once synonymous with. Besides, watching three big-name actors race helicopters and luxury cars to a veritable palace laden with high-tech security measures is simply cool.

In another series of ads, Hiddleston compared the revving of a Jaguar’s engine to the authority of an English movie villain’s voice and the car’s advanced technology to the sort of gadgetry that one would expect from a Bond film. In an age where patriotism and national pride are practically verboten, especially in Europe, it seems almost shocking to think that Jaguar’s ads even included a monologue from William Shakespeare’s “Richard II,” praising the English nation and the men who made her.

The simple fact is that Jaguar used to be cool. Whatever the company’s new logo and ad campaign may be — bizarre, indecipherable, amorphous, woke — they are not cool. Woke is the opposite of cool. Cool sells, woke doesn’t. Countless corporate titans have evidently learned their lessons when it comes to handling the poison known as woke. Bud Light, Tractor Supply, John Deere, Lowe’s, Rip Curl, and numerous other brands and retailers have discovered that vociferously promoting LGBT ideology is a death sentence for corporate profits. Jaguar may simply be late to the game, but the car manufacturer will also learn this lesson.

James Bond speeding along the cliffs of the Amalfi coast with a truckload of armed and uniformed villains in hot pursuit is cool. Bruce Wayne leaving his Gotham City penthouse and racing through the streets to reach the Batcave is cool. Jason Bourne evading CIA goons and tearing through downtown New York City is cool. Dirty Harry chasing a crazed criminal down the California freeway is cool. A man in a dress is not cool. A morbidly obese woman is not cool. Woke is not cool. Jaguar has chosen to abandon its heritage and the image of “cool” with which the company has become almost synonymous in favor of woke.

At its core, woke is the infantile, futile attempt to subvert and alter reality without any real effort. A man declaring himself a woman can never change the incontrovertible fact of his biological makeup by donning a pair of high heels and lecturing others about his new pronouns. This is also why woke is so obnoxious, so blatant, and so “in your face.” Reality needs no filter to be understood as reality; a six-foot-tall man with a big beard and a burly chest does not need to clarify that he is a man, it is simply understood.

But a six-foot-tall man in a ballgown has to tell others that he identifies as a woman and demands to be called “she” and “her,” because his subversion or alteration of reality is so clearly contradictory to reality; he cannot just be a six-foot-tall man in a dress, which is what reality denotes to the casual observer. Woke needs filters, it must filter reality through its own series of lenses in order to present its own distorted replication of reality; it can never simply rely on reality.

Cool, on the other hand, is rooted in reality. Unlike woke, it needs no filters. One need not be lectured about the emotional science of sound to get a slight thrill when a powerful engine roars to life beneath the hood. One need not have gone through excitement management training courses in order to cheer when an athlete pulls off a seemingly impossible feat. Cool is unafraid of itself, it presents itself simply, as part of the fabric of reality. Another thing: cool sells.

Whether it’s Jaguar or some other corporation, any conglomerate that goes woke is not doing so in order to market a product. This is a common (although well-meaning) misconception among many on the Right; we assume, based on our own mindset and goodwill, that these corporations and companies mistakenly believe that they will appeal to an evolving population of consumers and increase profits. This is not correct. These companies are, with few — if any — exceptions, not hurting for money, and most have the experience and history to know how to maintain and increase profits.

They are not promoting a product, they are promoting an ideology. Retail department stores do not sell rainbow Pride flag onesies because market research shows a sudden demand for LGBT-themed apparel among two-year-olds: they do so in the hope that the moms and dads who actually shop for their two-year-olds will believe that introducing toddlers to LGBT ideology is normal — or at least popular. Children’s entertainment companies do not introduce new characters with “they/them” pronouns and same-sex partners because they believe that five- and six-year-old viewers are craving LGBT representation: they do so in an effort to introduce children to ideas that would have otherwise never occurred to them, and to invite the children to question the ideas with which they have been raised.

In the end, woke is not a marketing technique or ploy, it is an act of ideological warfare. Jaguar is not on a sudden quest to sell its cars exclusively to they/thems and androgynous ethnic minorities. No, the automobile manufacturer is trying to replace its carefully-curated cool image with woke, and is hoping that everyone will mistake the former for the latter. If Jaguar is cool and Jaguar is woke, then woke must be cool, right?

But the filters have been falling over the past few years, like scales from one’s eyes. Jaguar may find that it has arrived to the woke party a little too late. While it’s true that none of these major corporations is quite hurting for money, everybody who’s sick to their stomachs of the incessant whining, labeling, and filtering necessitated by woke may just decide to make these corporations hurt for money.

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Number of Homeschooled Children Increases in America

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According to a recent report, homeschooling is on the rise across the U.S. The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy’s Homeschool Research Lab published data analysis last month looking at how homeschooling is faring across the nation.

“Twenty states either do not collect or do not report homeschool participation data, and we know little about trends in those states,” the report’s author, Angela R. Watson, wrote. She continued, “The other thirty states do collect and report, and we have reports from twenty-one states so far and expect the other nine to report over the next few months. Of those twenty-one states, nineteen reported an increase, but the patterns of those increases are most interesting.”

Watson observed that homeschooling “grew rapidly” when schools were closed due to COVID-19 lockdowns, but students were largely anticipated to “return to more traditional schools” once lockdowns ended. However, the number of homeschooled children across the analyzed states has actually increased, instead of declining or returning to pre-COVID levels. “What we see with the most recent increases in state-reported homeschool participation is something new — these numbers are not driven by the pandemic,” Watson noted.

The report pointed to New Hampshire as an example of what was expected: the state saw a massive leap in homeschooled children, from roughly 3,500 in 2019-2020 to over 6,000 in 2020-2021. Since then, the number of homeschooled children has gradually decreased to slightly lower than before COVID lockdowns.

However, even here, homeschooling may not have decreased so much. Watson noted that “insider reports indicate that the decline in New Hampshire is likely related to the state’s Education Freedom Account (EFA) and how homeschool students who receive public funding are no longer counted as part of the state’s total homeschooling number.” She added, “So, this decline may not truly reflect a decrease in actual homeschool participation, but may be just a change in how students are counted in this state.”

In fact, New Hampshire is one of only two states that showed a decline in reported homeschooling. Three states — Louisiana, South Carolina, and South Dakota — showed evidence of what Watson called “continued, growth,” meaning that there was no decline in homeschooling following COVID closures. In Louisiana, the number of children being homeschooled rose to just over 15,000 during the 2020-2021 academic year, but has only continued to increase.

In South Carolina, the number of children being homeschooled went from just over 20,000 in 2019-2020 to just shy of 30,000 the following year, and has risen to well over 30,000 since then. South Dakota saw over 6,600 children being homeschooled in 2020-2021, up from barely 5,000 the year before, but over 10,000 children are being homeschooled now.

“The other sixteen states show a rebounding trend, meaning that there was a post-pandemic decline, in some cases several years of a decline, and then, in 2023-2024, the number of homeschoolers increased again,” Watson explained. Arkansas had about 22,000 homeschooled students from 2019-2020, but that number rose to over 30,000 from 2020-2021. The number dipped down in 2022-2023 but is on its way back to 30,000 as of 2023-2024. Delaware saw similar trends, rising from approximately 3,000 homeschooled students in 2019-2020 to nearly 5,000 in 2020-2021. Again, the number declined to just under 3,500 in 2022-2023, but climbed again to approximately 4,500 in 2023-2024.

A number of states also reported “the highest-ever number of homeschoolers” on record, Watson noted. She continued, “These include the continuous growth states and North Dakota, a rebounding state that reported a record number of homeschooled students in 2023-2024 and a 24% increase over the prior year.” She added, “Rhode Island, also a rebounding state, reported a 67% increase over the prior year, while Wyoming also hit an all-time high with an 8% increase over the prior year.” Watson also observed that the actual number of children being homeschooled may be higher than what the state reports, adding, “we consider these counts as the minimum number of homeschooled students in a state.”

Watson pointed out that the numbers being reported are the actual number of homeschooled students, not percentages. “So the increase is even more interesting because the overall number of U.S. students is declining due in part to declining birth rates. In other words, ultimately we see that the number of homeschooled students is going up as the total number of U.S. students in going down,” she wrote. She also observed, “While there is a clear growth trend in homeschooling, the reason for that growth is unknown. What is clear is that this time, the growth is not driven by a global pandemic or sudden disruptions to traditional schooling. Something else is driving this growth.”

The Washington Stand asked Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at Family Research Council, what might explain the growth in homeschooling trends across the country. “The reason for homeschooling is often quite simple: parents not trusting their children’s education and moral formation to public or private schools,” Kilgannon answered.

“This can be motivated by academic performance, chaotic classroom environments, a child being bullied, or something even more personal like a child’s physical or mental health challenges,” she continued. “As federal, state, and local governments increase regulations on private school and charter school options, more families may find homeschooling the public school alternative that is right for them.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand. ©2024 Family Research Council.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Nearly Every Poll Finds Americans Believe the Country Is on the ‘Wrong Track.’ But Why?

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For the first time since 2022, the amount of Americans pessimistic about the future of the country has dropped below 70%. But the numbers still aren’t great.

According to a recent NBC News national poll, which was conducted between September 13 and 17 on 1,000 registered voters, 65% of those surveyed believe America is on the “wrong track,” with only 28% feeling otherwise. Of these two-thirds, Republicans remain the most skeptical, with 92% who believe the country is on the wrong track. A much lower percentage of Democrats feel this way, sitting at 36%, while Independents are leaning into the concern found on the Right at 70%.

NBC noted that this poll is merely the latest in recent years that have had the same conclusion: most Americans think the U.S. is on the wrong track. Similar to the survey conducted in 2020, this poll found that at least some of the data was tied to how voters feel about the upcoming election. In this case, 65% marked themselves as “very interested.” And yet, the outlet highlighted, that is still “a 10-point drop from the same point in the 2020 election.”

The poll took into account the perspective of numerous age groups, ranging from 18 to over 75. And while it did not specify what explicitly caused the respondents to feel America was on the wrong track, it did highlight some of their top concerns. According to the data, inflation was the top issue on the voter’s minds. In terms of describing the economy in one word, 66% chose a negative word, and 66% said their family’s income was “falling behind” the cost of living.

Other indicators of why those surveyed feel poorly about the future of America includes the violence that has surfaced in the political square, such as the assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump. Most respondents felt “rhetoric [was] an important contributor” to those occurrences. Additionally, the poll revealed that the majority of those polled lack a strong confidence that either presidential candidate will “do a good job” as the leader of the country.

Another poll, this one conducted by Gallup, found similarly low views of the U.S. According to their research, an even more dramatic 76% were “dissatisfied with the ways things are going in the United States at this time.” Before these two latest polls were released, Newsweek’s David Faris took a shot at answering why Americans feel the way they do. According to Feris, the root causes range from “policy failure” to a series of financial woes. “None of these problems has an easy solution,” he wrote.

In fact, one commentator drew attention to the reality that there really hasn’t been a true solution. “Pollsters love to ask Americans what they think about the direction of the nation,” the writer from ABC 3340 expressed, but experts are starting to point out how “that common survey question has become obsolete.” In the words of Dante Chinni, the founder and director of the American Communities Project, rather than continuing to ask the same question year after year, “We need to ask ourselves why we keep asking it” in the first place. To ask whether America is on the “right” or “wrong track” is “the beginning of a conversation, not a meaningful measure.”

And if you go around asking random people their reason for feeling the U.S. is on the wrong track as Chinni went on to do, you’ll find a variety of unique and biased answers. Well, this makes at least one thing clear: we need an objective answer, at least the beginnings of one. Anything can be analyzed from a biblical worldview, which is rooted in objective truth, so perhaps that’s the best place to turn.

Family Research Council’s David Closson, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview, helped address this topic in what he shared with The Washington Stand. “For decades,” he said, “American pollsters have asked voters whether they believe the country is on the right or wrong track.” But “in my experience, it seems that regardless of who is in power, a majority of Americans sense the country is on the wrong track” — which is evidenced by the polls.

In some sense, Closson explained how the party running the country likely has much to do with who feels most strongly that the country is heading in the wrong direction. For instance, “if a Republican is in office, more Democrats will tell pollsters they think the country is on the wrong track. And the reverse is true if Democrats are in power.” But when viewing these same variables as a Christian, Closson emphasized, “a question about the trajectory of America provides an opportunity for deeper reflection.”

He continued, “Most all Americans can agree, whether they get their news from Fox News or MSNBC, that something has gone deeply wrong in our society.” However, where we tend to disagree “is the cause of why things are the way they are.” Believers “understand sin is at the heart of everything that goes wrong in our country and our institutions and in our people.” As such, these “questions related to the trajectory of the country are of limited value,” only truly serving to indicate “something all of us instinctively know, which is that something has gone wrong,” and “decades of polling data seem to show that a majority of Americans don’t see it getting better,” either.

Closson further contended that if we’re to shy away from subjective speculation and inch toward an objective reality, only the biblical framework “explains why politics can’t ultimately cure that which ails society.” Only from Scripture can we glean a proper understanding of the sin that’s corrupted the world, the gospel that offers hope through all circumstances, and how the future we long for rests securely for those who put their faith in Christ.

Jesus said in John 16:33 that in this world, we will face tribulation. But He also said to “take heart,” for He has overcome the world. We need this reminder, because it’s unlikely to show up in the news or the polls. And yet, in a world that always seems to be on the wrong track, Christians ought to best understand the only right track is the track of faith.

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

The Lost Art of Thinking

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“Think, think, think,” says Winnie-the-Pooh, the famous animated character, as he pauses to solve a problem. This is a simple and quite memorable phrase from the loveable bear, but its simplicity should not be mistaken for superficiality. There is much truth in the act of pausing and thinking.

People have become comfortable with ignorance and fast information. The average time that people spend looking at a news article is about 148 seconds. The average person seems to believe whatever they are told, wherever they heard it, and they trust people who may have a bad worldview that skews certain viewpoints. People, especially Christians, should think, analyze, and contemplate information rather than accept anything as truth. Without a thinking nation, unbiblical people and policies can sneak into power and suddenly control most areas.

Thinking involves ideas. Ideas are like packages, and when we think, it is as if we are perusing through those packages, opening some of them, looking and handling the stuff inside, and keeping or discarding the items. When we think, we ask questions, almost like mining for gold. We shouldn’t believe the first notion, or “rock” we find, but instead dig deeper looking for the golden idea or meaning. Along the way, we may find a fool’s gold idea that should be abandoned.

The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, “Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil” (New International Version 1984). A Christian is free to explore ideas, but should also sift through those ideas and “hold on to the good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21b). Colossians 2:8 says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” Rather, Christians are to turn their mind towards Christ (Colossians 3:1-2; Romans 12:1-2).

Therefore, it is wonderful to read literature, watch the news, look at social media, listen to music, and have discussions. We can grow in knowledge, and others can grow too as “iron sharpens iron” (Proverbs 27:17). Creativity and innovation can advance when ideas can be explored. New ideas can bring joy, help, encouragement, comfort, and prosperity. But bad ideas can corrupt, destroy, and bring fear. While there is a balance of knowing an exact answer since there is absolute truth, there is a balance of exploring new ideas while at the same time being careful.

Furthermore, worldviews are basically a set of ideas that explain the world around us. Those ideas or worldviews are the purpose for almost every action of a person. Therefore, we should be careful listening to the news, reading books, and listening to music because the author’s worldview is always infused. We should question the concepts that are presented to see what they are communicating. Are they aligned with Scripture? What worldview is being conveyed? Could this worldview have a destructive impact on the world? For true reflection to work, belief in absolute truth is a must, which ultimately is from God (John 14:6).

When there is no contemplation, bad ideas can seep into our minds because often they are coated in what seems like candy or nice-sounding language that is convincing. Psalm 55:21-22 says, “His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart; his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords.” We may begin to believe lies about something, which could lead to making wrong decisions. Wrong decisions usually affect other people. These terrible sentiments and decisions can hurt and destroy others and their livelihoods. For example, politics and government are basically a battle of ideas. If the government or politicians decide to implement an immoral idea, then it would hurt the citizens. One can see this with politicians advocating for Marxist and socialistic ideas, such as critical race theory, free college, redistribution of wealth, and gender theory.

This is why Christians should be careful about content mentally absorbed. We might think it tedious to contemplate the information coming into one’s head, but we should just start by pausing, even for a second, after receiving new information. Begin by asking yourself one question: is this true? This will probably help to begin thinking more deeply about topics and asking more questions, such as: should I believe this; what does this mean; or, is this biblical? If we have a thinking nation, people are held more accountable and better ideas are implemented in the world.

Most people have lost this art of thinking, especially in America. However, there is always hope, particularly for Christians. People can change their minds by God’s grace. Therefore, the time is now. Christians can change the world by submitting their minds to Christ in the art of thinking.

AUTHOR

Katherine Musgrove

Katherine Musgrove serves as a Policy and Biblical Worldview intern at Family Research Council.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

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